Crying Wolf
by amylu
Summary: 13 years on from the film, Belle and Prince Adam have a daughter called Grace who one day goes into the forest surrounding the castle and interesting events unfold.
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first fanfic on here so apologies for the lack of adventure in the first chapter and please be kind with reviews, I'm not sure if it's any good. Hope you like it._

_Disclaimer-I do not own any of the characters from the film Beauty and the Beast, but Grace is my own creation._

Grace was awoken gently from her dream by her mother tapping lightly on her bedroom door. 'Come in', she said sleepily. Her mother, Belle, entered her room slowly, smiling at the daughter that meant so much to her.

'Good morning sweetheart', she said, hanging up the new party dress that the seamstress had just finished in her wardrobe and slowly opened Grace's big pink velvet curtains to let the beautiful French morning sunlight in. 'Did you have a good night's sleep?'

Grace slowly arose, sitting up on her three pink pillows and rubbing the sleep out of her big, baby blue eyes she had inherited from her father, Prince Adam. 'Yes thank you mother', she answered grinning, 'I had more dreams of adventure, of going out into the world and meeting new people!'

She shook her head in happiness and her long, brown and slightly unkempt hair which hung to her elbows puffed out in tangles from her sleep. Belle sat on Grace's bed next to her and began brushing her hair. As many servants as there were in the castle, Belle preferred to look after Grace herself to give her the mother's love that she herself had been denied as a child.

Even so, at that moment Mrs Potts scuttled busily in to tell Grace that her breakfast was on the table in the dining room. 'Make sure you hurry my child', said the old woman with a grin, 'you never know, the dog might eat it if you're not downstairs soon with telling all these adventure stories to your poor mother.' With a knowing smile, Mrs Potts excused herself and retired to the kitchen to clear up the cooking utensils used to prepare Grace's breakfast.

Grace looked around her beautiful pink room, with drapes from floor to ceiling either side of her window and a dresser covered in jewels with an ornate mirror fit for a princess. Her favourite thing was her wardrobe, an antique white wooden structure which was salient among all the pink in her room. Once Belle had finished combing Grace's hair, the young girl skipped happily over to her wardrobe to find something to wear for the day.

'Mother, should I wear the pink dress with the ribbons around the waist or the pink dress with the sequins on?' asked Grace, pulling each dress from the wardrobe and inspecting each varying degree of pink as she described the dress.

Belle patted her daughter on the head, smiling at her all too familiar enthusiasm and said 'now, remember you're most likely to be playing at some point this afternoon, so you want to wear a practical dress.' Belle pulled out Grace's most well worn pink dress which was very much like the blue dress she had loved and worn as a teenager a little older than Grace was now. 'How about this one?'

Grace smiled at her mother's choice of dress 'thank you mother, I do rather like this one' she smiled. She changed into her beloved dress and pink slippers and followed Belle noisily down the grand staircase into the dining hall downstairs; still recounting to her mother the dream of faraway places and people she hadn't yet met.

Grace hurriedly ate her breakfast, eager to get to the library to start her favourite morning activity – reading. She loved books of any kind, and found it funny that her mother had often been scorned and misunderstood when she was younger for loving books as much as Grace did now.

Finishing her fruit and bread, Grace thanked Mrs Potts for the food and ran up the staircase, challenging her mother to a race to the library. Belle smiled and called 'you run ahead and choose the book Grace, I'm right behind you'.

Once in the library, the excited young girl ran up the nearest ladder, reading out possible book titles to her mother who was calling safety warnings up to her from the centre of the beautiful tiled floor. 'How about 'Love at First Sight', or 'Jack and the Beanstalk' or 'Rapunzel' or…'

Belle smiled as her husband entered and read her thoughts 'maybe you should be reading something more educational, Grace' called Prince Adam with a warning smile on his face.

'Yes, darling', echoed Belle, 'why don't we read some more of your French Geography book?' and, when Grace had descended the ladder with a slight scowl at her father's love of education, Belle whispered in her daughter's ear 'afterwards you can go into the forest to explore if you want'. The smile magically returned to Grace's face as placed the heavy geography book on the old wooden table by the bay window of the vast library that her father had shown to her mother as a surprise 13 years ago.

Prince Adam left the room to ask Cogsworth to direct the cleaners to see to a broken suit of armour in the eastern hallway. Grace began to read from the big book to her mother, commenting with her on the descriptive geography and all the possible places to explore mentioned in it. Grace loved adventure as much as Belle had as a child, and she loved to wander in the forest surrounding her castle home with Belle, sometimes for hours on end, finding new areas of the forest and games to play there every day.

After reading five chapters of the complex book, Belle walked with Grace back to her room so that she could put on her cloak and outdoor shoes. They encountered Lumière, the former candlestick, in the corridor, where he embraced Belle with a hug and smiled when Belle told him of their plans for the afternoon.

'But Madame', he said in his thick French accent, 'you have spent all morning with mademoiselle Grace, let me take her for a walk in the woods. You should stay here in the castle and relax a little.'

After much persuasion from Lumière to be parted from her daughter for a few hours, Belle agreed to his idea and Lumière and Grace set off out of the heavy iron castle gates for the woods with the promise to Mrs Potts to be back in time for dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Closing the heavy wrought iron gates of the castle behind them, Lumière watched as Grace ran ahead of him into the woods. '_Such energy'_, he thought.

Grace ran through the forest, knowing the exact location of the best trees to climb, the fallen log that looked and acted as a bench, the spot where her grandfather had collapsed coming to rescue her mother from the castle and, finally, the clearing where she had spent hours on end playing throughout all of her 12 years of life.

As they approached Grace's favourite area of the woods, Lumière called to her 'Mademoiselle – stay in this area s'il te plait, I need to sit down in this clearing for a moment.'

Seizing her chance to do what she wanted, Grace bounded into the trees surrounding the clearing where Lumière sat, hands on his knees and panting with the effort of keeping up with the energetic child. She set off in search for somewhere new, or something that had changed in the few days that she had been away from her own natural playground. Everything seemed the same, and she made the most of her time alone; climbing up trees, and running about down the banks and through all the fallen foliage, as autumn was in full swing, making the forest a beautiful mass of reds, golds and browns. No unusual adventure found her until she got to a simple looking tree where the roots were covered in leaves.

She approached the pile to splash through and make that crunching sound that fascinates everyone for hours during autumn, when something strange happened.

Suddenly, the clump of vegetation moved and a shiny black nose poked out. Grace froze, the automatic response to the unknown keeping her rooted to the spot. A furry muzzle then emerged from the brown mass of leaves and from what she could see; Grace thought it might be a wolf cub. She had heard stories from her parents about the bad, angry wolves in the woods, but it had never been explained to her why they were angry or why they never came near to her or her parents when the family went for long afternoon walks in the woods.

This cub looked barely a week old and had big, innocent yellowy eyes; nothing like the piercing amber her parents had described the older wolves as having. This little creature looked sweet and lost and not at all vicious or unpredictable. Out of instinct, Grace reached out to stroke it, just behind its ears as the family dog liked to be stroked. The cub turned to her touch, not used to a mammal without fur, and it sniffed her hand inquisitively. Grace pulled her hand away slowly, looking at the fluffy, downy fur that covered the cub in its early days, thinking how cute and innocent it looked.

The cub was too young to be capable of much play, and as a wild animal, Grace knew that it was meant to be avoided, so, knowing that soon Lumière would come looking for her, she left the spot where her new friend lay in the leaves, and she walked away to the clearing where she had been told to play originally.

Upon returning to the spot where she had left Lumière, Grace smiled to find that, once again, Babette had been a useful distraction stopping him from guarding her. It was no wonder that Lumière hadn't followed her or called for her when he had been too busy flirting. The maid scuttled back to the castle when Grace approached; and as she viewed Lumière's secret, she decided to keep her own secret of the wolf cub to herself. After all, his animal parents should come back and find him in the next few hours anyway.

Coming back into the castle, Grace was still running around in high spirits, chasing the old dog round the entrance hall; and causing Lumière to go for a lie down in his room for an hour or so with the fatigue of keeping up with her.

With her guardian gone, the novelty of playing wore off, and Grace wandered around the lower floors of the castle looking for some adventure, mischief, or excitement to make the day go faster so that she could read with her parents in the evening. After walking past the empty dining hall, the entrance to the South wing where the maids were sweeping the long red hall carpet, and towards the always busy kitchen, Grace knew where she would find excitement.

Going past the door to the kitchen and on to the side rooms, Grace found her target standing with his back to the door, meticulously shining the cutlery, piece by piece. Stealthily creeping into the room, her slippers not making the slightest noise on the shining stone floor, she crept up behind her best friend, hands poised to make him jump.

'CHIP!' she called, loud as she could, jumping up and tapping him on both of his shoulders.

Chip sighed and turned around, a spoon and cloth still in his hand. 'It's a good job I wasn't cleaning a knife, Grace.' He told her, sticking his tongue out.

Grace replied with the same, before sitting down on the nearby stool and watching her friend continue with his work. At 17 years old, Chip was studious and careful with his castle duties, slowly working his way up through the ranks in the kitchen and dining room roles and aiming to one day take over from his mother, Mrs Potts, and run the whole kitchen area. Over the last few years, Chip had rapidly grown, becoming taller by the day and turning into a man before everyone's eyes. The little boy who had been a cup and helped Belle immensely when she first came to the castle was no more, and the Chip working there now was responsible, mature and adult.

That wasn't to say, however, that he couldn't entertain Grace adeptly. When his mother eventually came to find him to ask if the wines could be decanted ready for that night's supper, she found him teaching Grace to juggle tea spoons, deftly catching any she dropped, and cleaning them again on his cloth.

Mrs Potts stood in the doorway with a reluctant smile on her face. 'Chip, dear, are you nearly finished with this job?' she asked her son.

'Almost done.' He replied, gesturing to the rows of neatly stacked, shining forks and spoons on the shelves. 'I've just got the last few knives to do once Grace has gone.'

Pouting, Grace knew that was her cue to leave, so that she wouldn't distract Chip from the slightly more dangerous part of the job, and she called goodbye to him with a wave as she left the room, ducking under Mrs Potts' arm where she was leaning on the doorframe, and going upstairs to her room to dress for dinner.

Walking up the stairs to the first floor, Grace reflected on her friendship with Chip. She felt like she had so much fun with him, that they had spent well over a decade laughing, joking and enjoying themselves; and yet she knew so little about him. She didn't know why his name was Chip, what it was short for or what his real name was. She didn't know how he came to be the only other young person in the castle, who his father was, or why his mother was so much older than her parents. Odd as it was, her closest friend was the biggest mystery in her life. Everyone else, she could read like an open book.


End file.
